I'm looking at the Lopi Leyden (wood, not pellet) and one other alternative to replacing my old stove. After 20 years, I'm hooked on top loaders (old stove is a Nu-Tec AM-40) and that's one reason I like the Leyden. I see that the top door on the Leyden has the same painted finish as the rest of the stove (at least for the flat black model) and I've found a few comments leading me to believe that the paint is prone to peeling or flaking over time, and that time may be short if over-fired. My old stove has the flat black painted finish, but the top surface was bare metal so never ran into a similar problem. Since the Leyden is a down-draft stove, I'm thinking that maybe the top door paint durability is not an issue. What is the experience of Leyden owners?
Lopi Leyden - top door finish durability?
- Thread starter AngierNC
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it's a hi temp metallic charcoal finish. It will get some marks on it, but it is easy to touch up when the season is over.
It's really not an issue, I keep my stove VERY HOT at all times and have no flaking paint what-so-ever.
If you are considering the Leyden, I hope you are familiar with the Everburn system it uses. I suggest you do a search on it here to see if it is for you.
The Leyden uses a damper with a secondary burn, but I don't think it's exactly the same as Vermont Castings Everburn?
Smokey Bear said:
I am far from an expert, but I've heard it is the same sort of downdraft system, with the same challenges. Experts?
Hopefully AngierNC is enjoying his or her new stove being that this thread was started in August. I just want to add that this is my 3rd season with my Lopi Leyden. With properly seasoned wood and a thermometer on the stove top and one inserted into the flue pipe this stove is very responsive to the operator. Once you find the right temps a secondary burn is easy to obtain. It did take me a month or so to figure out this stove but very much worth it. My 15 year old son operates it just as well. Today I came home to a smokeless flue and 72'F inside 14'F out. Kid did a nice job. Jim
As for the paint on the top cover, I don't think you need to worry about that. It's not a problem at all. I'm considering taking the top cover to a machine shop and having it ground smooth and having it finished with bluing like they use on gun-barrels. I'd like that smooth finish, especially if we wanted to use it as a cooking surface some time.
One thing I like about my Avalon Arbor (same as the Leyden), is that once the combustor is finally going, I can just continue to drop splits into it and it will just keep going and going. It will produce a very consistent level of heat and it will burn through a very deep coal bed with no problem, in fact, a very deep coal bed seems to be an asset to this stove's operation.
The downside is that it can eat up a lot of wood really fast when starting up cold, and I constantly have a light smoke scent in the air whenever it's running. I think it's leaking a little bit from the top cover gasket (this stove HAS A LOT of gaskets). I have zero smoke smell from my Napoleon 1401. It also bugs me that it's hard to tell what's going on with the combustor by viewing the "fire" through the glass, especially when burning on low and the glass is all gunked up with creosote (an that's by design).
One thing I like about my Avalon Arbor (same as the Leyden), is that once the combustor is finally going, I can just continue to drop splits into it and it will just keep going and going. It will produce a very consistent level of heat and it will burn through a very deep coal bed with no problem, in fact, a very deep coal bed seems to be an asset to this stove's operation.
The downside is that it can eat up a lot of wood really fast when starting up cold, and I constantly have a light smoke scent in the air whenever it's running. I think it's leaking a little bit from the top cover gasket (this stove HAS A LOT of gaskets). I have zero smoke smell from my Napoleon 1401. It also bugs me that it's hard to tell what's going on with the combustor by viewing the "fire" through the glass, especially when burning on low and the glass is all gunked up with creosote (an that's by design).
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